Dead North

Alaskan Jesse Arnold thought that maybe things were looking up. After a lot of hard work, the ashes and debris that were once her cabin before an arsonist torched it were cleared away. Now all she had to do was wait until the weather dried so they could start putting in the basement. Jessie is thrilled when her friend and contractor Vic Prentice offers her the "job" of flying down to Idaho and picking up his brand new motor home. He wants someone familiar with the Alaskan Highway to bring it safely home. It would be the perfect way to give her a chance for a relaxing adventure, away from the reminder of her problems.

While she's setting out for her adventure, Patrick Cutler is running for his life. Accused of murdering his own mother, Patrick has decided to hitchhike up to Alaska, where an old friend lives. His policeman stepfather claims that Patrick beat his mother to death with a baseball bat, then attacked him. When asked, the next door neighbor, an older gentleman who has heard many of the married couple's late night fights and witnessed the bruises after Patrick's attempted interventions, suggests that the police look to the stepfather and themselves for the real cause of her death.

Eventually Patrick meets up with Jesse, and another lady driving her motor home up the Alaskan Highway, Maxie McNab. They decide to help him, despite his reluctance to talk. This decision will place them in peril because someone is following Patrick and he isn't afraid to kill anyone who gets in his way.

The setting is excellently drawn. Sue Henry captures the scenery of the journey, making us feel almost like fellow tourists. It does slow down the story a little in the beginning, but the descriptions are actually well worth it, and the pace near the end more than makes up for the slower start. I like Jesse Arnold as a character. She races and trains sled dogs, which makes for an interesting character twist. She has a true enjoyment for the outdoors and knowledge of her surroundings which makes the setting even more enjoyable. She brings her lead dog Tank along for the ride, and he is just as important a character as his mistress. Maxie McNab, a retired widow who has decided to travel in her own motor home, is a delightful combination of common sense and gutsiness that often steals the scene without meaning to.

This is Sue Henry's seventh Alaska mystery, and her eighth, "Cold Company," is due out in June. This book is a must read for people who love Alaska or for people who have secretly wished they could set out alone in a motor home and travel. After this adventure I feel like I've been through Fort Steele, taken a dip in Laird Hot Springs, and very nearly didn't make it through this gripping adventure to tell the tale.

four cloaks out of five

--Cindy Lynn Speer, Gotta Write Book Reviewer